Ekweremadu: I don’t want compensation or any link to ‘bad people’ – David Nwamini tells UK court
David Nwamini, the Nigerian who was trafficked to London in the United Kingdom for the purpose of harvesting his kidney for Sonia Ekweremadu – the daughter of Nigeria’s former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has told the court that he does not want any compensation from the family.
Nwamini said this in his statement to the Prosecutors ahead of the sentencing of Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice and a medical doctor Obinna Obeta, on Friday, May 5, 2023.
Hon Justice Johnson at the Old Bailey Criminal Court in London jailed Ekweremadu for nine years and eight months, his wife for four years and six months, while Obeta was sentenced to 10 years after being convicted for exploiting a vulnerable victim for illegal organ harvesting.
In his statement read at the court before the sentencing, Nwamini said he wants to move on with his life and “does not want anything to do with bad people (Ekweremadu) in any capacity.”
During the sentencing in London attended by a Neusroom correspondent, Nwamini, who claimed he is worried about the safety of his life and family in Nigeria, said he is happy to start his life in the UK and does not want to return to Nigeria.
“Since coming to the Police, my life has changed. I just wanted to work, get educated and send money home,” Nwamini said.
He added that he would never have agreed to donating his kidney to Sonia if he was told about his mission in London.
Ekweremadu, his wife and Obeta were arrested in May 2022, after Nwamini walked into Staines Police Station in London to report that he had been trafficked from Nigeria to the UK and they were trying to transplant his kidney.
Nwamini, a phone accessories dealer at Ikotun market in Alimosho LGA of Lagos state, was reportedly transported into the UK in February 2022 for the transplant with a promise to pay him and get him a job in the UK.
The trafficking of human beings for organ removal is not new. “With a shortage of legally sourced organs around the world, it is estimated that the illegal trade of human organs generates about $1.5 billion dollars each year from roughly 12,000 illegal transplants,” a report by the U.S says.
